The girls appeared instantaneously in front of Hinata’s falling form. Both looked surprised to see the other, but didn’t dwell on the fact. In half a second, Keiko attempted to kick Neji at the same time Kaori tried to hit him. It was in vein, however, since the minute either would have hit, a group of adults materialized into the center of the group, restraining Neji and the two girls.
“Why do you care what happens to her? What happens to them?” Neji was asking in his normally calm voice, although his body language was screaming that he was incredibly annoyed.
“Calm down, Neji!” A man with a bowl cut and shiny teeth was holding Neji down, struggling a bit with the effort. Neji breathed heavily a few times, allowing his muscles to relax. The man released him and Neji turned to face Kaori and Keiko with a smirk on his face. Keiko had to resist the desire to stalk right up and smack the smirk right off.
It was at that moment that Naruto decided to attack Neji himself. All Keiko saw was a movement of bright orange and then a flash of green. A boy who looked eerily like bowl-cut man (except with much larger eyebrows) had thrown himself in Naruto’s way.
“I want to fight him, too, Naruto, but all battles must be during selected matches.” While the two of them bickered back and forth for the moment, Neji turned his attention back to Keiko and Kaori.
“Why are you bothering to protect her?” he asked, once again with all seriousness all though the smirk remained on his face, “Oh, I see. Because you are “friends”. Perhaps you even made a promise to her.” Keiko let out an audible grow; Kaori wasn’t saying anything or making any sort of emotion on her face. Neji let out another laugh and this time made it completely clear that he was speaking to Keiko and not Kaori, “Why even bother? You made that promise when you were friends. She hates you now. And can you really blame her? You’ve always made her look bad and now you’re slowly replacing her with other people around you and still you expect her to forgive you.” Keiko was out of her bonds and trying to punch Neji before he could even bat an eye. He easily dodged and just laughed again. Without another word, Keiko turned around.
“N-Naruto?” Hinata’s soft voice came, accompanied by a guttural cough, “Do you think I became stronger? Maybe…just a little bit?” She coughed again, “And…Kaori…thank you…” Keiko felt Hinata’s eyes linger on her back for a moment, but didn’t turn around. Without even attempting to show any signs that she and Hinata had been friends, the girl walked back up to her position on the railing.
Keiko’s hands gripped the railing so hard her knuckles turned white. Even as Kaori left to make sure Hinata was okay and the rest of the people on the floor walked back up, all she could hear were Neji’s words, circling again and again in her head.
“You made a promise…she hates you…you’ve always made her look bad…and now you’re replacing her…yet you expect her to forgive you...she hates you…”
“Miss Ookami!” Keiko started, heard laughter.
‘So much for being a ninja able to SENSE things.’ She thought wryly.
“Miss Ookami, you have the next match.” Keiko looked up at the screen, which, sure enough, read “Keiko Ookami Vs. Tsuki Kagayaki” Her hear started pounding and Keiko could feel Balki’s chakra roaring through her veins, making the world seem fast and violent.
“Now would be a good time to make up Balki!” she hissed, a note of panic entering her voice, but there was no answer and Tsuki had already made it to the pit. Inwardly, Keiko groaned. She’d just made new friends and now she was probably going to end up nearly killing one of them. Her palms tingled with nerves as she made her own way to the arena.
Neither Keiko nor Tsuki took part in the usual before battle banter. The man coughed a few times and then began the match.
Tsuki struck first, throwing several smoke bombs Keiko’s way. Lucky for Keiko, the smoke worked both ways, so she was able to dodge Tsuki’s first blind attack and withdraw her senbon umbrella from her knapsack. Thinking she could make an all over attack, Keiko jumped straight into the air out of the smoke.
Tsuki, however, was ready and already in a position to attack. Keiko was unable to dodge and had a light blue ninja boot smashed into her face. Keiko landed on her back with a thud, thankful her nose hadn’t been broken. But Tsuki wasn’t done with her physical attack, coming down to land a hard kick on Keiko’s stomach and then retreat.
Keiko coughed and saw blood fleck the floor right in front of her. Unfortunately, the attack had been enough to activate her broken seal since Balki was unconscious.
She tried to restrain it. Instead of attempting to tear out Tsuki’s throat, she directed all of her chakra to her right let. Then she stood completely still, waiting for the smoke to clear. The moment it did, Keiko rushed Tsuki, flames licking her leg.
“Water style!” Tsuki yelled, “Water Dragon jutsu!” Keiko had forgotten that water attacks could still be used, since the arena was still damp from Kaori’s attack. Admittedly, water jutsu was not a common expertise in Konoha and Keiko hadn’t known that it was a skill Tsuki had. Two weak serpents rose from the water.
The attack was enough to extinguish the fire around her leg, although not enough to knock her off her feet. With one quick motion, Tsuki blocked the attack and sent Keiko flying.
The entire fight had gone on without a single word, except for Tsuki’s elemental attack announcement. For the first time, Keiko realized how much a few extra years of training helped.
“Get ready Keiko.” Tsuki was behind her now, but this time Keiko blocked the attack. When she whirled around, she took a defensive position. Tsuki was holding one arm at a ninety degree angle, finger together. There was an odd green flicker around the fingers, causing Keiko to realize the older girl had medical training. It did not bode well for Keiko.
Tsuki moved so fast this time that Keiko didn’t know an attack had been made until a muscle in her arm had been cut. The wolf chakra inside her howled with rage and this time, Keiko wasn’t going to bale to control it.
Within seconds, Keiko was in the air, right above Tsuki’s upturned, gaping face. “Fire Jutsu: Demon Kick!” Keiko screamed. Her legs erupted into flames, eating away chakra at an incredibly fast clip.
Her leg crashed into Tsuki’s face, which moved forward to violently, it was surprising her neck hadn’t snapped in two. Instead, she hit the floor face first. Breathing heavily, Keiko stood over Tsuki, leg raised for another attack; the attack to finish it all.
“Stop!” Balki had chosen that moment to wake up. The moment he had, he had race towards Keiko and bit her arm as hard as he could in his pup form, where he was now dangling.
“You’re…You’re okay.” Keiko whispered, voice breaking. She took him in her arms, cradling him and fell to her knees, trying as hard as she possible could not to cry. ‘If he’d waited any longer…would I have had a second death on my hands?’
“The winner is…Keiko Ookami.” Keiko stood, trembling. Her chakra was almost entirely drained, and now that Balki had woken up and taken his chakra back, she had even less than before.
She was relieved to see Tsuki get up, trying to stem the blood flowing from her nose. Keiko didn’t meet her eyes, not wanting to see the horror disgust etched into them. As it was, she was taken aback when Tsuki placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Impressive, Keiko-Chan. Especially for someone with a cut arm muscle.” Keiko looked up, but Tsuki was smiling and serious. Keiko couldn’t reply. Tsuki seemed to understand. She patted Keiko a single time on the shoulder, healing the slit cords at the same time, and then walked back up the stairs.
“Miss Ookami.” The procter said, this time with a cough obviously meant to get her attention. She didn’t answer, but went slowly back up to her place as the computer decided on the next battle.
“Would Rock Lee and Gaara [of the sand] please come down here?”
“Woo-hoo!” It’s my turn! It’s my turn!” the spandex-clad boy was shouting with extreme excitement. At this point, all Keiko wanted to do was go home and take a nap, but if her calculations were correct, there were still two more match-ups after that.
Rock Lee flung himself from the railing into the arena, just as the red haired sand ninja made his rather unenthusiastic way to the center.
“Let us have a fair fight!” Rock Lee said with a smile and a thumbs up. Gaara said nothing, did nothing. Keiko yawned, thinking she was going to pass out in a minute from chakra loss.

******

She awoke to a horrible, piercing scream. Leaping to her feet, Keiko looked into the stadium. Gaara was on the ground, gourd less, but a massive amount of sand had tightly wrapped itself around Lee’s leg and exerted enough pressure, it seemed, to shatter the bone.
The sand moved again, this time going to Lee’s entire body. There was a collective gasp from the audience, a shriek from Kristen, and two shouts of “Gaara! No!” from his teammates.
Gai-sensei saved him. At that point, Lee was unconscious, although his body seemed to still want to continue the fight. Across the way, Kristen’s eyes filled with tears, and Naruto was shouting something about “bushy brows!”
“Why? Why save him? He lost!”
“Because…he is my student. And I love him!” Gaara didn’t seem to get it; he just growled for a moment and began to walk away. At the last moment he turned around again.
“I will kill him. Just give me some time.” The medics swarmed in once more to carry Lee’s broken body away, “After all…it’s the only thing allowing me to live.” Keiko felt the same chill race up her spine as on the day he had asked her name, stating that she held “a certain spirit”. There was no time dwell. In the moments that followed, two more girls were selected to fight.
“Will Akara and Jackerah please make their way down to the field?”

(Okay, that’s it. I was going to write that fight, but I want to get up my at least one chapter of the week before semester tests (which I need to start studying for). There’s no telling when you’ll see me again. It can be as soon as this Friday or as late as three weeks into January. =/ Well…bye!)